Does more power mean better sound?

[IRAWB]

jack what's your source component?

This is THE most important part of your system - amps and speakers can't reproduce what they haven't been given. In fact, the better they are, the more they will resolve what your source is, or IS NOT doing properly.

Saying speakers are the most important part of your system is like saying it's the tyres that make cars go fast.

You go buy better speakers (not bigger for that wee room please!) and they will reveal even more of the front end, and after the excitement of your new purchase has worn off you will hear that your system sounds worse.

Get a really good CD player - the Rotel that matches your system is the right choice as it will sound like it belongs. Then you will have a very nice, balanced system that will hide its own faults. This souunnds like a bad thing, but is actually a very good place to be, as it avoids the audio upgrade disease that afflicts most people on this forum and all the others that litter the web.

[kexodusc]

jack what's your source component?

This is THE most important part of your system - amps and speakers can't reproduce what they haven't been given. In fact, the better they are, the more they will resolve what your source is, or IS NOT doing properly.

Saying speakers are the most important part of your system is like saying it's the tyres that make cars go fast.

You go buy better speakers (not bigger for that wee room please!) and they will reveal even more of the front end, and after the excitement of your new purchase has worn off you will hear that your system sounds worse.

Get a really good CD player - the Rotel that matches your system is the right choice as it will sound like it belongs. Then you will have a very nice, balanced system that will hide its own faults. This souunnds like a bad thing, but is actually a very good place to be, as it avoids the audio upgrade disease that afflicts most people on this forum and all the others that litter the web.

Not to downplay the importance of source components, but most people would suggest speakers make the single most dramatic difference in sound in a system.
I agree with everything you say about a source component. It is important. However, in the digital age especially the differences between entry-level, mid-level, and hi-end source players isn't night and day. To say speakers can't play what's not there is true, but the problem is that even in cheap components, most of the signal is there. When the speakers are compromised, they won't resolve what IS there.

I love my Arcam cd player, but it's not much better than my Yamaha CD player which was 1/5 the the cost...and that's not much better than an old Technics player that was half of that.
We've got decades of ABX and DBT testing to confirm this. Say what you will about the validity of the tests for determining source component sound differences, those 2 testing methods will yield absolute, strong, and repeatable results when speakers are the test subject. They will not yield absolute, strong,and repeatable results with cd players, amps, cables, etc. If nothing else, this is evidence to the huge impact and role speakers have in the system.

Put to an extreme. Which $10,000 system would sound better, the one with a $200 source component, $800 integrated amp, and $9,000 speakers, or the one with $200 speakers, $800 integrated amp, and $9000 source player?